Although the Fire played host to the 2019 MLS SuperDraft the club did not bring in any new players. Instead the club opted to trade out of the first two rounds of the annual college draft (Photo credit: Sean Maslin)
CHICAGO, IL—Instead of drafting players, the Chicago Fire were collecting allocation money as they try to have “close to a full roster in time for preseason” according to club president and general manager Nelson Rodriguez. First, the Fire traded the #5 overall pick to the Colorado Rapids for their #15-overall pick and $100,000 in general allocation money. The Fire then shipped the #15 pick to Minnesota United for $50,000 more in GAM. The Fire then shipped the #32 overall pick #8 in the second round to New York Red Bulls for a player to be named later.
There have also been
reports coming out of Europe that the Fire have agreed to terms with Polish winger Przemyslaw Frankowski from Jagiellonia Bialystok. Rodriiguez declined to comment on the matter. Frankowski has four caps with Poland and has 28 goals in 155 appearances.
The third and fourth rounds will take place via conference call starting on Monday at noon CT. The Fire will have overall picks 53, 55, 77.
THOUGHTS: One can only hope the Fire will use the allocation money wisely and not just make up the numbers to have a full roster. They do need players who can make an impact sooner rather than later and need them in virtually every position on the pitch. There will be really something to talk about if the Fire forgo picking players and collect even more allocation money.
What they need to do really is trade for international slots and/or offload some players in that department apart from their three designated players (Bastian Schweinsteiger, Nemanja Nikolic, and Aleksandar Katai). The Fire currently have six internationals on their roster and three additional internationals “loaned out”.
